HAWKS WIN GAME 1 OF THE CUP FINAL AGAINST THE FLYERS BY THE SCORE OF 6-5

Last night in Chicago, it was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final and it started off great from a fans prospective. As the Chicago Blackhawks who haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1961 took game 1 by the score of 6-5 against another team who hasn't won the cup for a while (since 1975) the Philadelphia Flyers. "You lose the first game of the Stanley Cup finals and it's hard to sit here and thumb through the positives right now," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We'll take a look at it tonight and tomorrow. We'll be ready to go." The first goal of the game came 6 minutes in by Ville Leino of the Flyers to make it 1-0. But just a minute after that the Blackhawks answered with a goal of there own by Troy Brouwer to tie the game. Then 5 minutes later the Flyers had a powerplay. On the powerplay the Flyers were looking to pass it to the point but Dave Bolland took the puck away and scored on the breakaway to give his team the lead.

That wasn't all for period number 1, as Scott Hartnell scored on a powerplay to tie the game once again. Then in the final minute of period number 1 Danny Briere scored for Philly to re-take the lead going into period 2. Just 1 minute into period 2, the Hawks tied the game again off a goal by Patrick Sharp. But once again the Flyers would go on to take the lead just 6 minutes later with a goal by Betts. But the lead never seemed to last in the game. As once more the Hawks tied the game with a goal by Kris Versteeg. The Hawks would go on to score with 5 minutes left in the second to take the lead at 5-4 (with a goal by Troy Brouwer). The Flyers would tie the game again with 2 minutes left (by Asham) in the second.

Then in the third there would only be one more goal and it would be by Tomas Kopecky of the Hawks to make the score be 6-5 and that is your final as the Hawks take a 1-0 series lead."The first period was a little jittery for both teams and in the second I still think we were a little bit more emotional than we normally are," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "Then all of a sudden we picked up the tempo, and pace that we wanted to set and continue. That's the standard we want to move on going forward to the next game." Game 2 of this series will be Monday night at 8:00 pm E.t on CBC, Versus and RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

HABS CUP RUN COMES TO AN END

Last night in Philadelphia, the Canadiens came out battling and got the first goal by Brian Gionta.Thing were looking good for Montreal. But when the Habs went on the powerplay, the Flyers came out on the attack shorthanded and Halak came out to challenge Richards. But Richards got around him and put it in the empty net to tie the game. Then in the Jeff Carter scored in the second period to put the Flyers up a goal. Then shortly after that Asham scored to put the Flyers up 3-1 going into the third. Then 7 minutes into the third, Scott Gomez scored his first goal in 18 games. But it wouldn't matter as the Flyers would add a empty net goal to win the game by the score of 4-2 and the Flyers are off to the cup final for the first time since 1997.

As for the Habs, this was there longest cup run since 1993. So it's not all that bad that they came up short. But thing that bothers me the most is that it's like Dajaview all over again. If you look back to the 07-08 season, the Habs lost to the Flyers in round 2 and in 5 games like this season."This hurts," defenceman Josh Gorges said. "To work this hard to get to where we are and then to come up short is tough to swallow because we know how close we were to where we were going.Yeah, we did a lot of great things and I'm proud of this group.

"We made steps in the right direction to build this team for the future, but it hurts." The Canadiens played well in this game and I think they have a bright future ahead of them. They just need to get a little bit bigger and they will be fine.The Stanley cup Final will start Saturday at 8:00.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

BLACKHAWKS SWEEP SHARKS TO ADVANCE TO THE STANLEY CUP FINAL

This afternoon in Chicago, the Blackhawks won 4-2 against the Sharks to complete a 4 game sweep to advance to the Stanley cup Final for the first time since 1992. "It's an honour to be going to the Stanley Cup. We beat a very good team over there. It wasn't easy. But we did it," Byfuglien (who scored 3 game winners in this series) said. Byfuglien is right.It wasn't easy especially in this game since the Hawks went down 2-0 (with goals by Couture and Marleau). But they came back with 4 unanswered goals by Seabrook,Bolland, Byfuglien and Versteeq.But the Hawks want to win the Cup for the first time since 1961. That's even a longer drought than the Maple Leafs have (which is 1967).

So what do they have to do to win the cup? They have to play exactly the way the played up until this point. Which is using there speed to attack, block shots and KEEP putting players in front of the net. The Stanley cup final has not been scheduled yet since the Habs and Flyers series is still going on. The Flyers have a 3-1 series lead going into game 5 on home ice. But the Habs have comeback before and I think they can do it again. Just ask Cammalleri.
"It's a familiar feeling for us," said Canadiens winger Michael Cammalleri. "We seem to play our best hockey in this situation. And here we go again."

Game 5 of the Habs and Flyers series is tomorrow night at 7:00 pm E.t on CBC, Versus and RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo